Sunday, May 30, 2010

Just a reminder, Polo this Sunday and every Sunday! 8 pm! First Baptist Church at the corner of East Parkway and Poplar. I'll bring four cones, six mallets and a ball, but not all the mallets are in the best condition, and the ball has a big ol' crack. So, bring whatever you have and we'll go from there! Even if enough people don't show up, I'm probably gonna hang out for a while, I know there are some people that can't make it 'til like ten. So don't worry if you can't come 'til later, just come out and experience the wonder that is bicycle polo.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Just a heads up for anyone that didn't know, the Lucky Cat is coming up! You can get all the deets over on Two Five Fix. A few of us from Memphis were gonna try to make it down, but work is getting in the way. Still might happen, but, eh, kinda doubtful, especially so soon after getting a weekend off for BFF. Unfortunately, my weekends are Wednesdays and Thursdays. Boooooo.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

So most of you have probably already heard, because Brett angry-texted everybody in his phone while it was going down, but we had a little run in with the big bad MPD last night. Around 1 am, Brett, Charles, Andrew, Catherine, and I headed downtown to jump the stairs in front of the Forum. We went straight down Poplar, which was fine for a weeknight that late; hardly any cars in sight. We got to Second (a one way street) and turned left. Andrew veered off left at Jefferson to check out some little stairs in front of the courthouse, which was the first bad idea. Never smart to linger around federal buildings at night, but we got away with that.

Shit hit the fan when we turned left back onto Second. Charles, Andrew, and I cut way across to the right lane, and Brett and Catherine stayed left, both of these moves being fine because it was a one way street. But then officer Ernie Craft spotted us and, of course, started giving us crap. By this time, we had all met together in the right lane, and he passed us on the left, saying over his loudspeaker, "next time I better see y'all wearin helmets, understand?" It was over a muffled loudspeaker atop a moving vehicle, so no, not all of us understood, and with the slightest shake of Andrew's head, good ole Ernie pulls us over.

Right off the bat, dude looks me in the eye and asks me how old I was. I guess I looked too young to be on a bike, what the heck. After taking all of our IDs, he starts writing us tickets for not wearing helmets. We, being the well educated and prepared cyclists, politely asked him if it actually is illegal, which it isn't, but he (the cop, mind you) did not know this fact. After realized he could quite possibly be a dumb, hot-headed cop, he quickly changed the charge to "obstructing traffic". This is 1 am downtown on a weeknight; traffic was nonexistent.

I automatically think to get this guys's car, license plate, and badge number, and I got a pen out of my bag and started writing them down on my hand while he's running our IDs in his car. Immediately, the cop comes stomping out of the car, saying "I'll give you something to need those numbers for" and puts me in the back of the car. ME! A little, innocent girl that apparently was too threatening to not have contained inside a police car. I freaked out for a second, but after realizing he didn't have anything to arrest me for, it basically just turn into a smelly and boring place to have to spend a half an hour. Apparently Charles was being too dangerous also, and ended up joining me for a few minutes, after being searched.

The cop eventually called for back-up because he didn't want to write out 5 tickets himself. They eventually let us out of the car, but we still were stuck sitting on the curb until 2:45 while they searched through a two-inch thick book of codes, just to make sure we were actually breaking a law. We ended up all getting citations for "obstructing highway or passageway", which is in violation of code 21-139. This would be true, but technically to be "obstructing", there has to be at least one other vehicle present, which there was not. Even if there were other cars, we are allowed to be in the right lane of traffic, which is right where we were. The other two cops basically thought that Ernie was full of it, and I think they kind of felt sorry for us, but dude has influence, apparently.

Us, with our citations (Charles's being a torn-up ball wooshing down past his face)

We all have the same court time and date, which also happens to be Charles birthday. The whole thing isn't that big of a deal and the ridiculous charges will most likely be dropped, but it's just an example of how terrible cycling conditions are in Memphis. No only are roads bad and motorists evil, but even the Man keeps us down, when we aren't even breaking laws. Even this time wasn't as bad as when Charles got hit by a car, who fled the scene, and he still ended up with a traffic ticket. Some lady hit him and drove off, leaving Charles with a ticket, a bent frame, and a dislocated shoulder.

It was three hours of cops researching what they could charge us with, while constantly asking us how old we were. We each answered that question around 6 times. AND, they all left their cars running for the whole three hours, which kind of pisses me off more. Our law enforcers are not only ignorant jerks, they're wasteful, ignorant jerks. Brett might write a more articulate post later, but I was too baffled to not tell as many people about this as I could and as soon as possible.

We live in Memphis. We don't know the meaning of bike lanes or compensation, whether monetary or medical, when we get hurt riding our bikes because of cars. Here in Memphis, it's always going to be the cyclist's fault. We can't argue with being written a citation, and we also can't retaliate and raise hell because we all have jobs and responsibilities we can't risk by being arrested. Tonight I felt that being a cyclist stripped me of my rights and I had no power. I couldn't do anything but give in to something that was completely wrong. The officer even threatened us by saying if we didn't sign our citations, we would be going to jail.

I hadn't really let this situation bother me until now. Even when I was in the car, I was completely calm and strong-willed, but now that I'm typing it all out, I realize that this sucks really hard. We need to do everything we can to make this never happen again. This is a small incident for us, but a HUGE injustice to every cyclist in Memphis. We need to make this better somehow.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

After a few days of work and recovery, I hafta say that I'm really pleased with how the Handicat turned out. There were snafus and problems, but on the whole, I think everyone had a pretty good time. I learned a ton so hopefully next time I decide to throw an alleycat it'll be even better. And maybe next time, it won't be the hottest day of the year so far.

But anyway, huge props to Charles, who pulled out first fixed/first overall! Not to mention being the first to every checkpoint and therefore the one who had to do the most stuff. Here are the full results:

Taylor and David both had to leave in the middle, and Brandon got a flat, but still, big thanks to everyone just for coming out. Seriously, just having people come out pretty much made the event for me. And DEFINITELY big thanks to all my volunteers. Sitting around in 95 degree weather just waiting on some sweaty dudes to show up all at once is not easy or necessarily fun.

I didn't get to take any pictures between setting up the last checkpoint and being on the phone coordinating with ten people, but Cort has some nice shots from the last checkpoint especially.

The whole affair was quite bittersweet for me. I'm definitely proud of myself for getting it together, but I really just wanted to be out there doing the checkpoints myself. Check out my entire rundown of the event after the cut:

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I made a new blog just for my photography, check it out here and follow it! I'm going to be working my butt of this summer on my portfolio and hopefully will have new images everyday. The blog itself still needs some work so excuse the boringness. I'll still be posting bike related stuff here, but I'll be using the same flickr for the new blog, so there will be plenty of bike-related images.

Monday, May 17, 2010

So outta like 30 people that Brett texted/called and the people that saw the previous post, only six showed up (including us two), but it was enough! Because our limited number of players, we were only able to get in two games, each to 5. In the first game, my team (me, Sam, and Andy) had a bitchin lead only to get smoked in the end by Brett, Charles, and Nic. Final score was 5-4. The second game was a rematch, but we still lost (lolz) and the score was 5-3.

Even though we lost, I had a really good game overall. I had a couple of hard angle shots from mid-court, as well as a few little ones, so I felt accomplished. The night didn't last long, but it was super-chill and still competitive (in a friendly way). It was also my first time to play on the Plug. The crazy head tube angle made sharp turns really easy and controllable. I always feel really good riding home from a polo game down Poplar with mallets sticking outta my bag and a stack of goal cones on my handlebars.

The night was fun, but the turnout of people was kinda disappointing. Memphis needs to get on it! We're going to start making this a weekly thing. Every Sunday at 8 pm, polo will happen, we just need folks to come out and play! We have about 8 mallets currently, but plans and materials to make more, and if Fix Memphis wants in on the action, I think they have around the same number (?).

Sunday, May 16, 2010

So it's been a minute since polo happened, March 11th to be exact. I only remember that because it was my bday, but it was TOO long ago. All you lazy people that don't wanna come out after midnight might have to get over it because that's pretty much the only time when everyone's off work and available. Just kidding about the lazy, but seriously we should play soon! I was thinking tomorrow night. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow until around midnight, so it's perfect timing for you late workin folk. So polo tomorrow night around midnight? ehh? same spot? Brett mentioned Rocky showed him a couple spots to play at, so we might migrate.

(back when my bike was still somewhat fresh and clean)

And since it's going to rain on my first day off in forevs, I might try and get some more mallets made. I still have tons of that plastic tubing but no ski poles or clubs to stick em on! Anyone got any ski poles laying around? I'm also going to make some prizes for the alleycat, caps and bags probably. Speaking of bags, sorry Cort for kind of flaking on making messenger bags to sell, this is most free time I've had in awhile.

So if you're down for polo tomorrow night (if it's not raining), let me or brett know because it most likely won't happen if less than 6 people want to. It most likely won't happen anyway, but I still have hope!

I'm considering buying this completely ridiculously awesome saddle. If it wasn't just 15 bucks I wouldn't consider it at all, but it's terribly silly and I want it!

There will hopefully be 12 ordered checkpoints including the start and finish, depending on how many people I can get to run 'em. At each stop the racer will have to perform a task, and the earlier you get there the harder it'll be - in other words, there'll be handicaps. So it's anyone's race!

Registration is totally free, but then again, sponsors are nil. There will be a few homemade prizes and Cort is gonna toss up some swag, but for the most part, this one's for fun and braggin' rights.

Tell your friends!

Oh, and here's the tentative list of checkpoints (though not in any specific order yet). I'm also looking for someone with a pool in the midtown area. Andrew might have one lined up, but it'd be good to have some other options in case it doesn't work out. I've also got it mapped out here, but here's the list just in case.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Didn't think there'd be an alleycat at BFF Memphis this year? YOU WERE WRONG!

Andrew and I have one in the works tentatively scheduled for May 23rd! Stay tuned for full deets within the next three days! Lots of Exclaimation Points! Booyah! Spread the word - hopefully people can stick around Memphis for one more day.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

I can't help but feel completely hopeless after some random person in a car calls me a bitch on my ride home today. Not to mention watching another car full of drunk women deliberately swerve at my friends and then at me the other night. A girl I was talking to today in class about cycling had no idea bikes were allowed to be on the road. I can't help but think it's pointless to try and change people's minds about bikes in this city. I love riding my bike and the happy things and awesome friends riding a bike has brought to me, but damn, it's scary sometimes. If I get hassled, me being a young girl on a bike, I can't imagine the kind of shit you boys get. Is this just Memphis? The South? What is so evil about a bike? The other night when Brett and I were riding through an intersection (with a green light) a woman in a car (stopped at the red light) was shouting as us, "REALLY!? REALLY!?", like she couldn't believe we were on bikes. I think that's the weirdest one I've gotten so far. She basically was implying, "you fucking dumbasses, why the hell would you ride a bicycle?". We all work so hard here in Memphis, trying to do the right thing for ourselves and our community by riding a bike, but the only reward we ever get is harassment. Riding by Republic Coffee about a week ago, someone on the patio shouted "This isn't Portland!". No it's definitely not even close to Portland, but what does that person get out of discouraging me from trying to make Memphis a cycling city? Who are we hurting? I'm perfectly content with loving bikes and knowing that some other people never will, but does that make me a bitch? Does that make me worth swerving at with a car? We deserve encouragement, recognition, and respect instead of blind and ignorant hatred. I usually don't let motorists get to me and definitely never let them see me bothered or just affected at all, but they have been persistently evil lately. I guess I should spend less time on the internet and more time riding, like Christina.

Christina over at bmorefixed is basically awesome. She, amongst tons of other girls out there riding, makes me feel better. I stole this from kteket's flickr, which is as equally awesome.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

I didn't used to like The Warble, but I'm pretty sure I just wasn't ready for it. Suffice to say, I do indeed now like 'em - but I haven't kept up with them since Spacetime Breakfast came out. So, while looking at pictures of all the recent flooding, I was pleasantly suprised to find a video of theirs up on the Commercial Appeal website.

Check it out! While Just Busted (the paper, not the song) is often a bit trashy, its entertainment value increases like a bajilion-fold when there's someone you know in it.